Travels in India (Tavernier) 159.2

159.2

Some of these people are no longer slaves, their masters having given them liberty, but they do not cease to work in the mines and earn large wages. But as they leave the mines on Saturday evening to return on Monday morning, during the interval they drink so much spirit, which is very dear, that they spend all they earn during the week, and thus they are always in a miserable condition of poverty.